Sean B. Palmer has announced a new proposal for a stripped down RDF-in-XML syntax called "BSWL" or the "Basic Semantic Web Language." The abstract syntax of this proposed language "is indeed very simple, consisting only of a set of three elements and a handful of attributes. The elements are: (1) <t> , denoting a triple; (2) <po>, denoting a predicate an object pair; (3) and <o>, denoting an object. Each of these elements has a range of attributes that associate a URI with a particular part of the content..." The proposed syntax features advantages over RDF M&S [Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification], including: "(1) Simpler syntax - no typed or anonymous nodes, allows one to form triples simply by nesting QNames; (2) Has a special syntax for referring to XML QNames; (3) Forces you to use xml:lang as part of the model, so it isn't lost; (4) Allows you to nest triples so that the subject of the former triple becomes the object of the latter triple; (5) Is possible to convert back into RDF M&S, and vice versa -- once RDF Core decide what to do about anonymous nodes; (6) Files using abbreviated BSWL tend to be shorter than RDF M&S."

Design motivation: "Many people have expressed an interest in having a highly simplified, but powerful, serialization of RDF in XML. To that end, I decided it would be beneficial to come up with a proposal -- leaving as many of the current preconceptions behind as possible -- which sets out a language which is as simple and intuitive to understand and use. The abstract syntax of this language is indeed very simple, consisting as it does of a set of only three elements and a handful of attributes. The elements are: (1) <t> , denoting a triple; (2) <po>, denoting a predicate an object pair; (3) and <o>, denoting an object. Each of these elements has a range of attributes that associate a URI with a particular part of the content. The 'id' attribute always identifies a URI Reference to be used in a particular way, depending on which element it is present. As in RDF, an empty id attribute corresponds to the URI of this document. The compliment of the 'id' attribute is the 'qname' attribute, which basically references a QName. When an id/qname attribute is present on an unnested <t> element, it gives the URI Reference of the subject. When one of these attributes is used on a <po> element, it gives the URI Reference of the predicate (of the parent <t> element). When one of these attributes is used on an <o> element, it gives the URI of the object (of the parent <t> element). When one of these attributes is used on a <t> element that is the child element of a <po> element, it becomes the object of that old triple, and the subject for the new one. The set of things called 'literals' in RDF are basically represented as data: URIs in BSWL. Literals may be referred to using a special bswl:literal attribute. This directly identifies the literal, not the thing that it is a lexical representation of. The attribute content of these attributes must be IRI escaped by processors deriving a model from the content..."